The present invention relates to an interoperable workflow management system, and in particular, to an interoperable workflow management system in which a plurality of workflow management systems associatively process workflow cases via a network.
A workflow management system is a system to manage a workflow, i.e., a business process and includes three elements: workflow definition, workflow execution, and workflow audit trail.
In the workflow definition, a workflow case and its workflow or circulating destination are defined.
In the workflow execution, the workflow case is circulated in accordance with the workflow definition.
In the workflow audit trail, a status of workflow or circulation is recognized and a workflow thereof is analyzed.
Japanese periodical xe2x80x9cNikkei Computerxe2x80x9d (Nikkei BP, May 1994; pp. 57-67) describes an example of the workflow management system.
Furthermore, xe2x80x9cTransaction of Information Processing Society of Japan 6-179 (first half term 1995) describes an environment (a multi-server environment) in which a plurality of workflow management systems associatively process workflow cases.
Additionally, the JP-A-8-255135 describes an example in which a plurality of workflow management systems interchange workflow cases via electronic mail.
Moreover, xe2x80x9cInteroperabilityxe2x80x94Abstract Specification (document No. WFMC-TC-1012, Oct. 20, 1996) of Workflow Management Coalition (WfMC; Brussels, Belgium) stipulates control attributes and other items for associative operations of a plurality of workflow management systems.
In addition, xe2x80x9cInteroperabilityxe2x80x94Internet e-mail MIME Bindingxe2x80x9d (document No. WFMC-TC-1018, Oct. 20, 1996) published from WfMC stipulates a method in which information for operations such as transmission of a workflow case, detection of a status of the transmitted workflow case, and cancellation of the case is transmitted by electronic mail to thereby achieve the operations above.
The prior art is associated with the following problems to be solved.
(1) Information disclosure cannot be controlled.
When workflow management systems are associatively operated between different firms and groups or organizations, information disclosed to external firms or organizations is desirably limited when compared with information internally disclosed within the respective firms or organizations. However, in the conventional technology, there occurs a problem of information leakage. For example, documents of a firm to be circulated in its divisions are directly sent to external organizations.
(2) When the communication route has a small transmission capacity, the workflow or circulation is delayed.
In the prior art, all information is transmitted. Therefore, when a large amount of information is transmitted through a wide area network (WAN) and/or an external network having a low transmission capacity, there arises a problem that the transmission time is elongated and/or there occurs a communication failure.
(3) Transmission of cancellation of a transmitted workflow case is not appropriately guaranteed.
For the cancellation, an electronic mail indicating cancellation is sent to a workflow management system of the associated destination in the prior art. However, there exists a problem that whether or not the canceling information is delivered before the transmitted workflow case is processed is not ensured.
(4) The processing status of the associated destination system is not easily determined.
In the conventional technology, a query mail or enquiry mail is sent to a workflow management system of the associated destination for inquiring the processing status of the workflow case. However, there is a problem that the status is determined only when an answer is received in response to the query from the partner.
It is therefore an object of the present invention, which removes the problems mentioned above, to provide an interoperable workflow management system and method with a high security capability, capable of controlling delivered information in accordance with destinations in information circulation, and a computer-readable recording medium storing a program for implementing the workflow management.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an interoperable workflow management system and method in which even when canceling information of a transmitted workflow case is not received by the destination upon a cancel operation by the transmitting source, it is guaranteed that the case is canceled by the destination.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide an interoperable workflow management system and method in which the transmitting source or partner can recognize without any query the current status of the workflow case and the status of processing thereof in the workflow case destination.
To achieve the above objects, in accordance with an aspect of the present invention, there is provided an interoperable workflow management system in which two or more workflow management systems are associated with each other. At least one of the systems includes transmitting information control means for selecting transmitting information in accordance with a disclosure level of the partner system as the destination of transmission and transmitting the selected information thereto. In consequence, the communication can be performed, for example, as follows. When the transmitting and receiving systems are of the same system configuration, the entire information of the workflow case is transmitted. Otherwise, only partial information of the workflow case is transmitted. With the above configuration, the information disclosing range or limitation can be controlled.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an interoperable workflow management system in which two or more workflow management systems are associated with each other. At least one of the systems (one transmitting system) includes transmitting information control means for transmitting workflow control data related to the workflow control and pointer information indicating workflow user data not related to the workflow control to the workflow management system as the destination of transmission. The destination system includes workflow user data acquiring means for indicating pointer information to the system having transmitted the pointer information and thereby acquiring workflow user data indicated by the pointer information.
In the interoperable workflow management system above, the transmitting system transmits pointer information of workflow user data in place of the irrelevant data. When necessary, the destination system issues a request with pointer data. In response thereto, the transmitting system transmits the workflow user data. If unnecessary, the request is not issued and hence the transmitting system is not required to transmit the workflow user data. Resultantly, the amount of transmitted information is lowered and saved and the transmission delay is prevented even when the communication path has a small transmission capacity.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an interoperable workflow management system in which two or more workflow management system in which two or more workflow management systems are associated with each other. At least one of the systems includes transmitting information control means which transmits only workflow control data related to the workflow control for the workflow cases to the workflow management system as the destination of transmission and which does not transmit workflow user data not related to the workflow control to the system as the destination, and submitting information control means for adding the workflow user data not transmitted to a response from the destination system to create a case of the destination and then submit the created case. In the interoperable workflow management system configured as above, since the transmitting system does not send workflow user data, the amount of transmitted information is decreased and the transmission is not delayed even if the communication route has a small transmission capacity. In addition, since the workflow user data is added again to the answer from the destination system, the transmitting system can restore the entire information of the case.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an interoperable workflow.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an interoperable workflow management system in which two or more workflow management systems are associated with each other. At least one of the systems includes transmitting information control means for transmitting workflow control data related to the workflow control and pointer data or information indicating workflow user data not related to the workflow control to the workflow management system as the destination of transmission, and canceling data replacing means for replacing, in response to indication of cancellation of a workflow case, the workflow user data with canceling data. The workflow management system as the destination of transmission includes workflow user data/canceling data acquiring means for indicating pointer information to the system having transmitted the pointer information to thereby acquire workflow user data or canceling data indicated by the pointer data.
In the interoperable workflow management system of this aspect, the transmitting system transmits pointer information of irrelevant data in place of the irrelevant data. When necessary, the transmitting system transmits the workflow user data in response to a query or request with pointer information issued from the destination system. If unnecessary, the request is not issued and hence it is not required for the transmitting system to transmit the workflow user data. Consequently, the amount of transmitted information is reduced and the transmission delay is prevented even when the communication path has a small transmission capacity.
Moreover, for the cancellation of the workflow case, the workflow user data is replaced with canceling data. This is internal processing of the transmitting system and hence can be executed at a high speed. Consequently, even when the canceling data is received after the processing is started in the destination system, the data obtained in response to a request is canceling data, not workflow user data. The cancellation can be therefore much more guaranteed.
In accordance with a further aspect of the present invention, there is provided an interoperable workflow management system in which two or more workflow management systems are associated with each other. At least one of the systems includes transmitting information control means for transmitting workflow control data related to the workflow control and pointer information indicating workflow user data not related to the workflow control to the workflow management system as the destination of transmission and status determining means for determining, when an access indicating pointer data is received from the destination system, a status that the workflow case is in process. The destination system includes workflow user data acquiring means for indicating pointer information to the system having transmitted the pointer information and thereby acquiring workflow user data indicated by the pointer data.
In the interoperable workflow management system above, the transmitting system transmits pointer data of workflow user data in place of the irrelevant data. If necessary, the destination system issues a request with pointer data for the workflow user data. In response thereto, the transmitting system sends the workflow user data. If unnecessary, the request is not issued and hence the transmitting system is not required to send the workflow user data. Therefore, the amount of transmitted information is minimized and the data transmission is not delayed even when the communication route has a small transmission capacity. Additionally, when a request for workflow user data is received from the destination system, it is assumed that the processing of the case is already initiated. Due to this provision, the processing status in the destination system can be immediately determined.
Other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent when reading the following description of the embodiments of the invention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.